It’s not supposed to happen at all

Keith MagillExecutive Editor

Published: Sunday, June 9, 2013 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, June 9, 2013 at 12:26 a.m.

A Lafourche sheriff’s deputy said something that struck a chord with me during a major exercise last week that trained officers how to respond to the kind of massacre that took place in December at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

“So many times we want to say, ‘Oh, something like that’s not going to happen here,’ and we know that’s not the case already,’ ” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brennan Matherne told a Courier and Daily Comet reporter.

He’s right. Bad things have happened here. They’ve happened in a lot of places around the state, nation and world.

Statements like this — “It’s not supposed to happen here” — have long perplexed me.

They usually trigger this response from my inner voice: “Where is it supposed to happen?”

Outside fiction books, is any community anywhere immune from evil, violence, insanity or tragedy? Is it arrogant, inconsiderate or just plain na´ve for someone to perceive his home as so angelic and pristine that a tragedy of that magnitude could never happen there?

Whatever the answer, I still find it sad that we have come to a time and place in our community where authorities now have the unfortunate and necessary need to train for horrific events like Sandy Hook.

Two drills took place last week locally — one at E.D. White Catholic High in Thibodaux and another at Ellender High in Houma. The latter, ordered by the School Board after the Sandy Hook slayings, is the first of its kind in Terrebonne Parish.

One sobering thing about the Ellender drill was its emphasis not just on protecting students but on giving the school’s adults — teachers, administrators and other workers — tools aimed at minimizing harm in a crisis. I’m not a security expert, but that sounds logical to me. The premise sounds similar to the instructions flight attendants give before takeoff: Put on your oxygen mask first, then help others. Translated: If you’re dead or incapacitated, you won’t be helping anyone.

Despite widespread fear and concern, mass murders and school shootings are rare in the U.S., experts say.

“There is no pattern, there is no increase,” criminologist James Allen Fox of Boston’s Northeastern University, who has been studying the subject since the 1980s, told The Associated Press in the days after Sandy Hook.

Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, says such crimes reached their peak in 1929. In the same AP story, he estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century. Our chance of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, is probably no greater than being struck by lightning.

Experts have consistently noted that most people who have died from bullet wounds knew the shooter. And, researchers say, such so-called street crimes are far more numerous than the school shootings that capture so much more attention, empathy and sympathy.

Jooyoung Lee, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto whose research involves crime, gun violence and culture, explored this “double standard” in an essay he posted to the Society Pages website.

“For many of us, these (mass) shootings cut a little too close to home. They happen in places to people who remind us of ourselves. We begin to wonder: ‘Are we ever really safe?’ ‘Will our children come home from school today?’ ‘Will this happen at my favorite movie theater?” he wrote.

“But the same kinds of sympathy and compassion are often not extended to families who lose their children in street shootings every day,” he continued. “We assume that these victims — who are often children — must have been dealing drugs, in a gang, or doing something to meet such a horrible end. Everyday violence in our inner cities helps us hold onto a precious myth: Fatal violence only happens to people who bring it on themselves. If we can believe this, or at least think it might be true, we can feel safe again.”

Research by Lee and others who study gun violence say the profile of a shooting victim is far more complex than many realize. Among the statistics I found interesting is this one from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control: More children and teens died from firearms every three days in 2010 than in the Sandy Hook school massacre.

A lot of people stunned by those children’s shooting deaths probably said things like “It’s not supposed to happen here.” They’re right. It shouldn’t happen here, there or anywhere.

Courier and Daily Comet Executive Editor Keith Magill can be reached at 857-2201 or keith.magill@houmatoday.com.

<p>A Lafourche sheriff's deputy said something that struck a chord with me during a major exercise last week that trained officers how to respond to the kind of massacre that took place in December at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.</p><p>“So many times we want to say, 'Oh, something like that's not going to happen here,' and we know that's not the case already,' ” Sheriff's Office spokesman Brennan Matherne told a Courier and Daily Comet reporter.</p><p>He's right. Bad things have happened here. They've happened in a lot of places around the state, nation and world.</p><p>Statements like this — “It's not supposed to happen here” — have long perplexed me.</p><p>They usually trigger this response from my inner voice: “Where is it supposed to happen?”</p><p>Outside fiction books, is any community anywhere immune from evil, violence, insanity or tragedy? Is it arrogant, inconsiderate or just plain na´ve for someone to perceive his home as so angelic and pristine that a tragedy of that magnitude could never happen there?</p><p>Whatever the answer, I still find it sad that we have come to a time and place in our community where authorities now have the unfortunate and necessary need to train for horrific events like Sandy Hook.</p><p>Two drills took place last week locally — one at E.D. White Catholic High in Thibodaux and another at Ellender High in Houma. The latter, ordered by the School Board after the Sandy Hook slayings, is the first of its kind in Terrebonne Parish.</p><p>One sobering thing about the Ellender drill was its emphasis not just on protecting students but on giving the school's adults — teachers, administrators and other workers — tools aimed at minimizing harm in a crisis. I'm not a security expert, but that sounds logical to me. The premise sounds similar to the instructions flight attendants give before takeoff: Put on your oxygen mask first, then help others. Translated: If you're dead or incapacitated, you won't be helping anyone.</p><p>Despite widespread fear and concern, mass murders and school shootings are rare in the U.S., experts say.</p><p>“There is no pattern, there is no increase,” criminologist James Allen Fox of Boston's Northeastern University, who has been studying the subject since the 1980s, told The Associated Press in the days after Sandy Hook.</p><p>Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, says such crimes reached their peak in 1929. In the same AP story, he estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century. Our chance of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, is probably no greater than being struck by lightning.</p><p>Experts have consistently noted that most people who have died from bullet wounds knew the shooter. And, researchers say, such so-called street crimes are far more numerous than the school shootings that capture so much more attention, empathy and sympathy.</p><p>Jooyoung Lee, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto whose research involves crime, gun violence and culture, explored this “double standard” in an essay he posted to the Society Pages website.</p><p>“For many of us, these (mass) shootings cut a little too close to home. They happen in places to people who remind us of ourselves. We begin to wonder: 'Are we ever really safe?' 'Will our children come home from school today?' 'Will this happen at my favorite movie theater?” he wrote.</p><p>“But the same kinds of sympathy and compassion are often not extended to families who lose their children in street shootings every day,” he continued. “We assume that these victims — who are often children — must have been dealing drugs, in a gang, or doing something to meet such a horrible end. Everyday violence in our inner cities helps us hold onto a precious myth: Fatal violence only happens to people who bring it on themselves. If we can believe this, or at least think it might be true, we can feel safe again.”</p><p>Research by Lee and others who study gun violence say the profile of a shooting victim is far more complex than many realize. Among the statistics I found interesting is this one from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control: More children and teens died from firearms every three days in 2010 than in the Sandy Hook school massacre.</p><p>A lot of people stunned by those children's shooting deaths probably said things like “It's not supposed to happen here.” They're right. It shouldn't happen here, there or anywhere.</p><p> </p><p>Courier and Daily Comet Executive Editor Keith Magill can be reached at 857-2201 or keith.magill@houmatoday.com.</p>